iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

I reset my iPhone Cellular Network Data Counter (Reset Statistics) at the same time my "new month" started. I inentionally synchronized this carefully. I have noticed as I have tracked my usage via the iPhone 4S internal counter (Settings / General / Cellular Usage / Cellular Network Data), and adding the Sent and Received amounts, that what the iPhone is counting is less than what AT&T is counting and reporting back to me via *DATA#. My iPhone 4S thinks it used about 7% less than AT&T is telling me I used. The numbers have continued to diverge, with the iPhone reporting a lower number (yes, I am adding sent and received) than AT&T. Any reasons for this ?

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

AT&T and your iPhone usage counter are both estimates. I'd personally believe AT&T's usage estimate...as they are the one's connecting your iPhone to their 3G network. As long as you are not getting an overage charge...I wouldn't worry too much about it!

*The views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

Well, I had to jump in and let someone else know what is happening with my son's phone. Yes, he is a teenager, but we have been on the 300 MB plan for a year. He has monitored his data usage through his iPhone settings. He has had once that we had to pay to "upgrade" to the next level when he got too close, but otherwise it hasn't been a problem. This month? His iPhone says total of 252MB used, with 5 days to go in the billing cycle. What does AT&T say? 525 MB!!! We already paid an overage when it went over the 300 mark. From one day to the next he supposedly used 100 MB, so we had to pay the overage. So, that is why I am on this forum trying to figure out what is going on! AT&T says that it must be a problem with the cell phone. BUT, he has used his cell phone's usage to keep from going over for an entire year, and suddenly its not working. Another odd thing, is that his usage on AT&T's website showed NO usage AT all for the first 5 days of the month, then it hit him with over 200 MB, in just 5 DAYS? I know its possible, but not very probable, as his usage pattern hasn't changed that much.

I use the following apps on my phone and have now had him add it to his: Data Usage, gives me a nice red button with how much I have used, so if I get close I can tell at a glance and don't have to rely on AT&T's inaccurate way of showing data usage. Onanvo Extend, really helps you use less data. My son already had this, but it shows cellular and internet rolled into one. Onanvo Count lets you know what apps are eating Data, helped me figure out what was eating my data when I had problems a while back.

AT&T I feel did the best they could with the problem, and gave us a credit for the overage charge, since we obviously have a discrepancy. I'm still trying to figure out why.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

I have spoken at lengths to both Apple support and ATT. Apple thinks it could be the rounding of the data usage that's causing the discrepancy between the iPhone cellular data usage and ATT's usage. ATT customer service have nothing to say but that their number is accurate. My daughter's phone shows about a 7-12% discrepancy in ATT's favor. This is a serious issue and ATT and Apple should get together to clear this up. It's not difficult to track data usage. We did it when we were managing ISPs about 20 years. The software is track data usage is built into all these OSes on all the devices. I would start filing complaints with FCC and start talking to reporters about this issue.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

iPhone usage are not estimates. They have software that track every bit and byte that goes out of your phone. We did this 20 years ago and the technology has been around for this for all devices, from PCs. phones, routers. It's not science.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

tiadna wrote:

iPhone usage are not estimates. They have software that track every bit and byte that goes out of your phone. We did this 20 years ago and the technology has been around for this for all devices, from PCs. phones, routers. It's not science.

you do realize that the numbers you are comparing will never be accurate, since the website is not real time, but delayed? It states it at the website. two to five days for normal, two to 10 days for roaming with a possiblity of 60 days. The reported data usage also includes MMS messages, although you are not charged for the data used there. It also specificly states it is a "estimate"and is not used for billing

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

I believe it's actual but not real time. They have a breakdown of usage by day and time and how many Kb used. I tallied\ them up in Excel and they match the usage from *DATA#. As far ATT is concerned, that's what they consider your usage against your data plan. So yes, it's not realtime but it's usage that they track based on date and time.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

[ Edited ]

tiadna wrote:

I believe it's actual but not real time. They have a breakdown of usage by day and time and how many Kb used. I tallied\ them up in Excel and they match the usage from *DATA#. As far ATT is concerned, that's what they consider your usage against your data plan. So yes, it's not realtime but it's usage that they track based on date and time.

You are right, it is actual but realize that the "day" may be an aggregate of data used from 2 to 5 days on in carrier, 2 to 10 days and possibly evenup to 60 in roaming. The data usage you are looking at may not even be from the same billing cycle that you are trying to compute in excel. They track date and time, but the combined proably was not used at that data and time, it is a roll up of multiple days and not just one single day, where do you think *DATA# gets the information, 98 percent chance it is the same data table as the website.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

Take a look behind the data usage. I have turned off push notifications, all apps requestion location, no automatic updating, and turned off cellular for iTunes and any other app. I've never used Facebook yet my phone has used 187Mb sending Facebook data. The same goes for several other AT&T API request via third party apps that are not installed, authorized or used on my phone. In 11 days these apps increased my data use by more than 1Gb. I don't use YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Vimeo, Pandora, Spotify or others. Nor do I play games, poker, etc.

My concern is AT&T was awarded along with HP and IBM a $3.5 Billion contract using API request for Navy-Marines. If no one at AT&T can stop, limit, reduce, correct what's being pulled from my phone now, how are they going to secure military secrets and the safety of our servicemen?

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

[ Edited ]

Unsatisfiedcomsumer-14 wrote:Take a look behind the data usage. I have turned off push notifications, all apps requestion location, no automatic updating, and turned off cellular for iTunes and any other app. I've never used Facebook yet my phone has used 187Mb sending Facebook data. The same goes for several other AT&T API request via third party apps that are not installed, authorized or used on my phone. In 11 days these apps increased my data use by more than 1Gb. I don't use YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Vimeo, Pandora, Spotify or others. Nor do I play games, poker, etc.

My concern is AT&T was awarded along with HP and IBM a $3.5 Billion contract using API request for Navy-Marines. If no one at AT&T can stop, limit, reduce, correct what's being pulled from my phone now, how are they going to secure military secrets and the safety of our servicemen?

funny, I have a Iphone 5 and has all services turned off, the only 4rd party app is for bank access

the last time the cellular data was reset was 06/08/2012

Sent - 7.1MB

Recieved - 14.1MB

If facebook is sending then it has a logon configured for it and it will automaticly poll, since facebook app is written by facebook, they would be the ones that messed it up, you can uninstall that app if you don;t use it, same with twitter

Download the data usage tracking app from Itunes created by Onavo Mobile LTD, read the terms of service and install it, let it run for 10 or 15 days, you might be surprised with what you find. You might also think about reseting the phone to default and do not do a restart. If you upgraded from a previous Iphone and just did it via a restore there could be services that where left over from the old phone. The phone in question for the data was setup as a new phone with no restore.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

wingrider01 wrote:

Unsatisfiedcomsumer-14 wrote:Take a look behind the data usage. I have turned off push notifications, all apps requestion location, no automatic updating, and turned off cellular for iTunes and any other app. I've never used Facebook yet my phone has used 187Mb sending Facebook data. The same goes for several other AT&T API request via third party apps that are not installed, authorized or used on my phone. In 11 days these apps increased my data use by more than 1Gb. I don't use YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Vimeo, Pandora, Spotify or others. Nor do I play games, poker, etc.

My concern is AT&T was awarded along with HP and IBM a $3.5 Billion contract using API request for Navy-Marines. If no one at AT&T can stop, limit, reduce, correct what's being pulled from my phone now, how are they going to secure military secrets and the safety of our servicemen?

funny, I have a Iphone 5 and has all services turned off, the only 4rd party app is for bank access

the last time the cellular data was reset was 06/08/2012

Sent - 7.1MB

Recieved - 14.1MB

If facebook is sending then it has a logon configured for it and it will automaticly poll, since facebook app is written by facebook, they would be the ones that messed it up, you can uninstall that app if you don;t use it, same with twitter

Download the data usage tracking app from Itunes created by Onavo Mobile LTD, read the terms of service and install it, let it run for 10 or 15 days, you might be surprised with what you find. You might also think about reseting the phone to default and do not do a restart. If you upgraded from a previous Iphone and just did it via a restore there could be services that where left over from the old phone. The phone in question for the data was setup as a new phone with no restore.

There was a recent report that I read (http://www.thefullsignal.com/apple/iphone/14838/facebook-killing-your-iphone-battery) that Facebook runs in the background more then you would think. They have programed their messenger function under the VOIP protocol so they are allowed to run in the background to "listen" for incoming messages. While most apps are truely dormant when they are in the background, the VOIP permssions can run in the background and chew up data and your battery.

To stop this, you need to double tap the home key to get to the App tray then hold your finder on one of the apps until it "jiggles" then click on the X to truely shut down Facebook. I would also assume shutting down the messenger function within facebook on the iPhone would have the same effect?

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Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

I've been having the same problem the last few months as the original poster, which is costing me. I've have a 200 MB plan and have had to pay an extra $15 for going over the limit in 4 of the last 5 months (the only month I didn't, I was in Europe for two weeks and bought an unlimited data plan for Europe). My usage of my iphone has not changed one iota from before and I was consistently only ringing up 110-130 MB/ month. (BTW, I upgraded to an iphone 4 in 2011.)

Curious and suspicious about what could be causing this incredible uptick in data usage, I began turning off all notifications, location services, etc. on my apps to eliminate any potential unintended data use. I also began exiting all of my apps on a regular basis (double clicking the home button to reveal open apps, and then exiting them). But I'm still having the problem of greater than expected data usage.

So, like the person who started this thread, I reset my data usage counter on my iphone and just recently compared what AT&T reports my usage to be (on its website) to my phone's data usage counter, and have found the same huge discrepency that others on this post have found.

My problem with your comment, wingrider01, that AT&T is only estimating and includes it in their disclaimer, is that it makes NO sense. Since resetting my phone, the phone's data usage counter shows 27 MB used compared to 84 MB used. That is much to great a spread to be dismissed as a matter of "estimating" or rounding up! And this is not just a theoretical problem with no consequence. It's costing me and probably thousands of other AT&T iphone users a bunch of money each month, all to the benefit of AT&T.

I spoke to AT&T "customer service" yesterday for about 45 minutes and neither of the two service representatives could explain the discrepency other than to say "you must have used the data." They were also careful, I noted, not to say it was an issue with the Apple phone. That's either because they don't want to badmouth their partner, or because they know it's false and that could subject them to liability.

This is not a new problem either. As I've discovered since trying to find an answer to this problem, folks on user forum's on various sites like this one - including Apple's - have been reporting these problems for a couple of years now. I sure would like it for AT&T and/or Apple to come forward with some fix or explanation and sympathize with all of the others who have been having the same problem.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

[ Edited ]

brewin4life wrote:

I've been having the same problem the last few months as the original poster, which is costing me. I've have a 200 MB plan and have had to pay an extra $15 for going over the limit in 4 of the last 5 months (the only month I didn't, I was in Europe for two weeks and bought an unlimited data plan for Europe). My usage of my iphone has not changed one iota from before and I was consistently only ringing up 110-130 MB/ month. (BTW, I upgraded to an iphone 4 in 2011.)

Curious and suspicious about what could be causing this incredible uptick in data usage, I began turning off all notifications, location services, etc. on my apps to eliminate any potential unintended data use. I also began exiting all of my apps on a regular basis (double clicking the home button to reveal open apps, and then exiting them). But I'm still having the problem of greater than expected data usage.

So, like the person who started this thread, I reset my data usage counter on my iphone and just recently compared what AT&T reports my usage to be (on its website) to my phone's data usage counter, and have found the same huge discrepency that others on this post have found.

My problem with your comment, wingrider01, that AT&T is only estimating and includes it in their disclaimer, is that it makes NO sense. Since resetting my phone, the phone's data usage counter shows 27 MB used compared to 84 MB used. That is much to great a spread to be dismissed as a matter of "estimating" or rounding up! And this is not just a theoretical problem with no consequence. It's costing me and probably thousands of other AT&T iphone users a bunch of money each month, all to the benefit of AT&T.

I spoke to AT&T "customer service" yesterday for about 45 minutes and neither of the two service representatives could explain the discrepency other than to say "you must have used the data." They were also careful, I noted, not to say it was an issue with the Apple phone. That's either because they don't want to badmouth their partner, or because they know it's false and that could subject them to liability.

This is not a new problem either. As I've discovered since trying to find an answer to this problem, folks on user forum's on various sites like this one - including Apple's - have been reporting these problems for a couple of years now. I sure would like it for AT&T and/or Apple to come forward with some fix or explanation and sympathize with all of the others who have been having the same problem.

When and where was that 84MB used? Was it going through att towers, where you roaming when you where using the data, was it used on the same day? that 84MB that was displayed could have been usage for 5 to 10 days ago, or if roaming up to 60 days ago that was just reported to the system. The iphone usage is realtime, the web display is a agregation of what could be multiple days or weeks of usages that was just reported. key word here is realtime

phone = realtime accounting

website = delayed due to time required to obtain all the data statistics from all the locations

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

Wingrider - apparantly you didn't read the original post clearly enough, as you merely restated the initial claim. The point of the initial post (and this thread) is that the phone's data counter DIFFERS from AT&T's counter...and while we all agree that the phone's counter should be the most accurate, it issue is that AT&T's is ALWAYS HIGHER, and they attempt to BILL as such. Because of this, they are likely charging customers for MORE data than is actually used.

Re: iPhone Data Usage Counter DIFFERENT from AT&T (*3282#, *DATA#)

JTK_Forever wrote:

Wingrider - apparantly you didn't read the original post clearly enough, as you merely restated the initial claim. The point of the initial post (and this thread) is that the phone's data counter DIFFERS from AT&T's counter...and while we all agree that the phone's counter should be the most accurate, it issue is that AT&T's is ALWAYS HIGHER, and they attempt to BILL as such. Because of this, they are likely charging customers for MORE data than is actually used.

the point is the counter on the website is NOT real time but it is a sum of multiple time periods that can be fro as long as 60 days ago if there is roaming data usage include, why is that so hard to understand? Not usre how to explain it and clearer. the difference is real time reportinf vs a total of mulitple days being reported

phone - real time suming of data

website = sum of data used over a period of time that is reported on a single line at a single time at a singles instance

you may use 10 MEG on a single sitting in network , that 10 MEG may not show on the website for up to 5 DAYS latter, it will be added to the display bucket and display along with any other usage that hits, be it for that exact day and minute or anything with-in up to 60 dyas previous. This IS documented on the display of the data on the website.